SE Asia Stocks-Subdued; Thailand rises for third session

Redacción de Reuters

4 MIN. DE LECTURA

By Susan Mathew
Oct 20 (Reuters) - Southeast Asian stock markets were
subdued on Thursday as investors trod carefully before the final
U.S. presidential debate while strong U.S. earnings and an
overnight rally in oil supported broader sentiment.
Since most recent opinion polls have favoured Democrat
Hillary Clinton, the market's focus had been on whether
Republican rival Donald Trump would be able to use the final
debate to regain momentum in the final weeks ahead of the Nov. 8
vote.
"Past two debates were won by Clinton, investors now want to
see if she can put the final nail in the coffin. So, they are a
little risk-off for the moment," said Victor Felix, an equity
analyst with Manila-based AB Capital Securities.
Thai shares extended gains into a third session and
hit their highest in nearly two weeks. Energy stocks led the
gain with a rise of 1.6 percent, on the back of a significant
rise in oil prices overnight.
Crude oil futures jumped on Wednesday after the U.S.
government reported a surprisingly large drop in inventories for
the sixth week out of seven. Prices dipped in early trade on
Thursday on profit-taking.
Shares of energy companies PTT Pcl and PTT
Exploration and Production Pcl rose nearly 2 percent
each.
Philippine stocks were marginally lower, after
declining as much as 0.7 percent as investors booked profits
following two sessions of gains.
"Yesterday we saw 1 billion pesos in net foreign buying,
which is very significant because in the past four weeks we have
seen an average of about 200 to 500 billion pesos in net foreign
selling," Felix said.
Consumer and industrial stocks fell the most, with
conglomerate JG Summit Holdings and Ayala Corp
top losers in their respective sectors.
Malaysian stocks rose for a third straight session,
while Vietnam and Singapore fell slightly.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
rose 0.34 percent.
For Asian Companies click;
SOUTHEAST ASIAN STOCK MARKETS: Change at 0455 GMT
Market Current Previous Pct Move
Close
Singapore 2842.8 2844.62 -0.06
Bangkok 1494.42 1486.28 0.55
Manila 7706.78 7721.57 -0.19
Jakarta 5414.24 5409.288 0.09
Kuala Lumpur 1670.12 1668.27 0.11
Ho Chi Minh 687.88 688.89 -0.15
Change on year
Market Current End 2015 Pct Move
Singapore 2842.8 2882.73 -1.39
Bangkok 1494.42 1288.02 16.02
Manila 7706.78 6952.08 10.86
Jakarta 5414.24 4593.008 17.88
Kuala Lumpur 1670.12 1692.51 -1.32
Ho Chi Minh 687.88 579.03 18.80
(Reporting by Susan Mathew; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)